The government said emergency funds for passports would be debated this week.

In a statement late on Tuesday, the federal police said the decision to stop issuing new passports “stems from a dearth of funds earmarked to the activities of migratory control and the issuance of travel documents”.

There’s a lot of finger-pointing, of course, and a long history corruption, and trying to look like a country with strong infrastructure, and whatever, but it all comes down to one thing: overspending.